What I liked
The story has twists and turns like in real life and has Murray, now a lawyer, representing a dangerous Latino drug dealer up for murder as his first case, all the while trying to be a father to his wayward, school ditching sons. There are laughs from from beginning to end and Murray brings all the characters to life. You leave the theater feeling that Murray has finally become a real father to his sons and the man he was always destined to be.
What I didn't like
It seems that word hasn’t gotten out yet that “In My Own Defense” is one of the comedic gems of this years Hollywood Fringe Festival. You’ll love every minute of it! Case closed!
My overall impression
In My Own Defense is belly laugh funny from beginning to end, propelled by a true-to-life story and a great performance by author/performer Murray Meyer. The story is “It’s a Wonderful Life” turned upside down, wherein George Bailey splits from his wife and kids and small town life to pursue his own dreams of fame and fortune. In Murray’s case it’s the “do your own thing” 1960s that causes him to leave his wife and three young children in Vancouver to enroll in NYC Film School to become an auteur filmmaker. Things don’t work out and Murray ends up in LA going to law school and living with his two teenage sons that his wife has sent down to live with him. The boys haven’t forgiven their father for abandoning them and their mother and reluctantly move in him at the ramshackle boarding house, owned by a pot dealing ex nun, where he lives with an with an oddball collection of stoner boarders. Beneath all the laughs and funny moments, It is a redemption story about Murray becoming man and a real father to his sons.
